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Monday, January 07, 2019

Downtown: Interesting stories from the Loop, River North, and Mag Mile

Here’s a handful of stories from the downtown area that caught our eyes:

Holt | Cook County Sheriff's Office

• Dakota Holt, 23, of Englewood has been charged with robbing a man in River North this autumn. Holt was arrested in the 100 block of West Erie on Dec. 22nd after police recognized him as the person wanted in connection with the earlier hold-up, according to court records.

Prosecutors say Holt approached a Lincoln Park college student in the 100 block of West Hubbard shortly before 2 a.m. on Oct. 27th and said, “I have a gun, and you are not going to like the outcome of this.”

Holt allegedly escaped with the victim’s wallet. He is charged with felony aggravated robbery while indicating the presence of a firearm. Judge Stephanie Miller set his bail at $50,000.

Poole | Cook County Sheriff's Office

• A man from the Austin neighborhood is accused of posing as a hotel security guard to steal electronics from a guest at the Sheraton Grand, 301 East North Water Street, on Dec. 28th.

Police said a Texas man called the hotel’s security office after Christian Poole, 29, knocked on his door and insisted that he was a security officer around 6:30 a.m. Real hotel security arrived on the 16th floor just in time to see Poole running down the hallway with an iPad, laptop, and iPhone in his hands, police said.

Poole showed the security guard a room key, but the guard detained Poole after recognizing the key’s design to be outdated and no longer in use by the hotel. Prosecutors charged Poole with burglary and trespassing. Court records show that Poole had been free on a recognizance bond for less than 24 hours on a criminal damage and trespassing case when he was arrested at the hotel. He is also on 30 months “intensive probation” for receiving-possessing a stolen motor vehicle (a charge of escaping electronic monitoring was dropped in that case).

Judge Stephanie Miller said Poole could go free on a recognizance bond to await trial in the hotel matter if he qualifies for electronic monitoring. So far, he has failed to qualify for the program.

Pereda | Cook County Sheriff's Office

• Finally, a Franklin Park man is facing felony criminal damage to property charges after he allegedly knocked over two spotlights and a news camera belonging to ABC7. Damage may exceed $40,000, according to a police report.

One of the station’s reporters told police that Ismael Pereda knocked over their equipment, which was set up for a live shot near Water Tower Place around 5:15 a.m. on December 23rd. Pereda was arrested nearby.